Marketing

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and a member of Historic Hotels of America, The Stanley Hotel is famous for its old world charm. Offering four different Estes Park accommodation experiences including historic rooms, modern apartment-style residences for extended stays, and expansive condominiums on the legendary grounds overlooking Rocky Mountain National Park. The Stanley offers over 14,000 square feet of sophisticated meeting and event space equipped with modern amenities and several stunning indoor and outdoor wedding venues. Only an hour away from Denver, it is the ideal destination for your Colorado vacation getaway.

Shoutout to Edureka! – offering awesome online courses and offering a Flat 20% OFF for a limited time!

Diane Kobrynowicz is an inspired health guru + owner of “Austin Health Coaching” in Texas, USA. She speaks about her practice + helps us understand why a holistic approach to well-being is so important.

Seeing the face behind a business is an important part of being more relatable + growing a successful trust between a brand + its customers.

One of Skybok’s new clients, Pepper Pastor, is a New York native famous for her hair styling skills – boasting celebrity clients such as Levis, Cadillac, Pony, Terry Richardson, Converse, Alice & Olivia, Redbull + more. She wanted us to create video profiles showcasing her client testimonials, as well as the start of a new video web series where she shares creative tips. Skybok also did a great photoshoot of Pepper, which you can see on her Facebook channel here.

1. Seven days thou shalt labour + do all thy work, for the startup life knows no sabbath.

That includes holy days. All-night coding sessions, missed meals + triple espressos are the order of the day.

2. Thou shalt not torture thy customers with an endless beta.

To a customer, the “beta testing” label doesn’t mean much. If you keep making mistakes + your buttons don’t work + their password gets leaked, saying that you were “in beta” isn’t going to make them feel better – or stick around.

3. Thou shalt not take thy competitors’ names in vain.

Badmouthing competitors sounds a little too much like gossip. “We’re very careful: we don’t talk about competitors, we don’t slag them, we don’t throw them under the bus,” says Dave Olson, VP Community at HootSuite. The point is to focus on building a better product. “We don’t compete against people; we compete against ourselves,” he explains.

If you have to compare yourself to Mark Zuckerberg, you probably shouldn’t be compared to Mark Zuckerberg. Brian Wong, the 21-year-old founder of Kiip, complains about this phenomenon: “This is giving birth to a generation, unfortunately, of extremely cocky, ego-driven young entrepreneurs that think that just because they’re young, they should be paid attention to,” he says.

“I am my own person, I am my own class of entrepreneur, and I will build a company without anybody asking me how I built it compared to someone else. I’m going to build it my way.”

Otherwise, your customers will be vengeful rather than forgiving masters. Social media has made business more + more transparent, so it’s hard to get away with apologies that don’t admit wrongdoing – “We are sorry if some were offended” – or apologies that skew the facts.

6. Honour thy investors, that their purse-strings may be loosened.

Zvi Band, the CEO of Contactually, recommends keeping in touch with current investors every 2 weeks + potential investors every week.

And while you may not always follow investors’ advice, show some respect + actually take it seriously. Even if they didn’t create your startup, they are helping it grow.

7. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s acquisition.

Holding out your hopes for a $1 billion acquisition like Instagram’s is foolhardy, to say the least. And even profit-hungry investors don’t want to hear about your acquisition fantasies. “If you show me a slide as an early-stage company that mentions your exit opportunities, and in 3 years you’ll sell to Google for that return to me, I’ll just laugh at you – but the laughing means you’re dead,” says Jeff Clavier of SoftTechVC.

8. Thou shalt not steal thy startup’s contact list.

In a recent scandal, one of WakeMate’s cofounders used the startup’s email list and Twitter account to promote his new product, MiLife+, and raise funds on Indiegogo. He claimed it was affiliated with WakeMate, but the other cofounder didn’t know anything about it. Here’s the full story. The Indiegogo project was eventually taken down due to the drama.

Closing down a startup may be a painful process + an admission of failure, but it frees you up to move on to the next exciting thing. “You got a lot of good guys running companies that are not doing well, when they could be joining forces and building a lot more value,” says Mohan Belani, the founder of Asian tech blog e27. “I call it a zombie. People don’t want to kill themselves.”

10. Thou shalt practice generosity if thou becomest a gazillionaire.

Virtuous choices including being a mentor or investor, opening an accelerator + donating pizzas to hungry entrepreneurs in your your community.

Skybok enjoyed creatingthis fresh new blog for The Rotary Club of Algoa Bay. Good causes always need good websites. Join them on Facebook here. The Rotary Family Health Days 2015 will be held in the heart of Zwide Township at Ubuntu. It was incredible to hear Bill Clintontravelled there last year. It’s the home of the Ubuntu Education Fund. The RFHD are 3 days of free health care for the community. Skybok shot and produced the Algoa Bay Rotary Club’s video profile recently, as well as their soup kitchen for Madiba Day at Provincial Hospital.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING REFERS TO THE PROCESS OF GAINING TRAFFIC OR ATTENTION THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA SITES.

Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may provide radically different social actions. For instance, Twitter is a social site designed to let people share short messages or “updates” with others. Facebook, in contrast is a full-blown social networking site that allows for sharing updates, photos, joining events and a variety of other activities.

HOW ARE SEARCH + SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING RELATED?

Why would a business who has a website which comes up in a search engine care about social media? Because the two are very closely related.

Social media often feeds into the discovery of new content such as news stories, and “discovery” is a search activity.

Social media can also help build links that in turn support into SEO efforts.

Many people also perform searches at social media sites to find social media content.

Social connections may also impact the relevancy of some search results, either within a social media network or at a ‘mainstream’ search engine.

A current feed (daily updates) ensures your brand is top of the news stream or search results. This means potential customers are more likely to find you.

An active community on social media channels leads to community which leads toengaged customers who keep coming back and using your product/service.

A personal touch to your brand makes people feel connected to you in a unique way, wanting to share in the experience that is your brand.

Having social channels lends to transparency for your brand which means feedback from your audience.

This all means more feet through the door, a deeper understanding of your clients, a chance to improve your service or product and better (bigger!) business.

WHY YOU’RE SEEING MORE HASHTAG STICKERS ON SHOP WINDOWS

Hashtagging is a popular way for brands to run competitions, giveaway tickets to events + generally get people talking about the brand.

Here in Cape Town, it’s become a hot trend to see shops such as Topshop, Mr Price, Zara, Guess, Sunglass Hut + other fashion stores display hashtags on their windows. This isn’t just limited to clothing stores, though. Places like Woolworths, Pick ‘n Pay, Mac, CNA or even coffee shops like Vida e Caffè are catching on. In fact, you’ll see references to social media channels pretty much everywhere now – banks, bars, theatres, camera stores, bookstores, restaurants and even liquor stores have some kind of “voice” set up online. It’s about:

+ community

+ brand awareness

+ audience interaction

+ discovery

+ feedback

+ influence

+ reach

+ growing business

Are you looking for advice, help, set-up or management of your channels? Get a quote now.